Unai Emery’s year as Aston Villa coach: 11 home wins in a row

Unai Emery took the helm at Aston Villa a year ago, replacing Steven Gerrard after a poor start to the season. By the end of the season, the Spaniard had managed to get the team back on track and, more importantly, made them a threat that can age even the Premier League’s biggest teams.

Start at Aston Villa

In his very first start on the Aston Villa bench, the manager with Arsenal experience scored the scalp of Manchester United, which his charges managed to beat 3: 1. A few days later, they crashed out of the Carabao Cup with the same opponent, but that didn’t seem to bother the management too much.

By January, Aston Villa had lost only to Liverpool and at the beginning of the new year they surprisingly dropped out of the FA Cup against Stevenage. During the winter transfer window, several players packed their bags and left on loan. Álex Moreno from Betis and Dhurán Jhon from Chicago joined the club.

At the end of the season, it was a great 7th place in the Premier League for Aston Villa. Tottenham or Chelsea of London finished behind it in the table. Moreover, Watkins topped the goalscorers table with 15 goals.

This season

In the summer came a minor reshuffle of the squad. Philippe Coutinho, Morgan Sanson, Ashley Young and others left the club. On the other hand, the club welcomed record signings Moussa Diaby from Leverkusen, Paul Torres from Villareal and Youri Tielemans arrived as a free agent. Aston Villa then signed Clement Lenglet or Nicolo Zaniolo on loan.

The first task of the season was to make it through the Conference Preliminary Round and advance to the group stage. Aston Villa defeated Hibernian FC 8-0 on aggregate and the job was done. From the group of only the third European competition, the English team should easily advance, as they have the highest market value team in the whole competition and of course they surpass everyone in quality.

After nine rounds played in this year’s Premier League we find Aston Villa in 5th place with a loss of 4 points to the first Tottenham. The main credit for this, besides Emery, goes to Watkins and Douglas Luiz, who already have 5 goals each. The new signings fit perfectly into the team, and especially Moussa Diaby acclimatized to the new competition right away.

It shows what a fortress Unai Emery has made Aston Villa is the fact that they lost their last Premier League home game on February 18, 2023 against Arsenal. Since then, the team has racked up a streak of 11 home wins in a row. In 6 games they have managed to keep a clean sheet, the runaway train has not been stopped by Newcastle or Tottenham. Let’s be surprised at what number the home winning streak stops at.

Unai Emery is currently coaching 41 games in Bimingham in which he has a fantastic winning percentage of 58.54%. With this number he is at the very top among the managers of this team. Of course, talking about Emery as the best Aston Villa coach is premature, as the number of games coached is low.

Source: Premier League, Aston Villa